HRI and Rightslink invite you to a lunch-time discussion with Lotfi Maktouf a Tunisian civil society activist and founder of Almadanya, a Tunisian NGO formed after the revolution to empower people through a series of development and cultural programs.Two years after peaceful demonstrators calling for three and only three demands (freedom, dignity and jobs) forced then president Ben Ali to flee, some question what happened to the Tunisian revolution and its aspirations.How did it shift from jobs to polygamy, from freedom to gender separation in public places and in schools, and from dignity to criminalizing blasphemy? Mr. Maktouf will discuss the challenges and tasks facing post-revolution Tunisia as well as discussing the broader consequences of fundamental ideological shifts on the region's social fabric, social dynamics, human rights, the place and value of the law, security and economics.

Lotfi Maktouf graduated from Tunis, Paris-Sorbonne and Harvard law schools. Member of the New York Bar, he practiced international corporate and tax law in Wall Street and then served for four years as Senior Counselor at the International Monetary Fund based in Washington, D.C.Since the Tunisian revolution, he became active in Tunisia via Almadanya.